A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



spend a visit at the Scottish court.' Early in 1226 he had a warrant for 

 holding his courts of Penwortham and Rochdale with the pleas belonging as 

 he and his predecessors had held them before the war,' and the same year 

 was appointed a justice in eyre in cos. Lancaster and Lincoln.' The year 

 following the king granted to him the vill of St. Botolph (Boston) and Holland 

 with its fairs for his maintenance in the king's service,* and in September sent 

 him on an embassy to Antwerp.^ In January, 1229, he was appointed to 

 conduct the king of Scots from Berwick to meet the king at York,* and in 

 September, 1230, was a commissioner to treat for a truce with France,^ while 

 in July, 123 I, he was in the king's service in Wales.' Upon the death of the 

 earl of Chester in 1232, John de Lacy, his nephew, succeeded him as earl of 

 Lincoln,' in right of his second wife Margaret, only daughter and heir of 

 Robert de Quincy and Hawise, fourth sister and co-heir of Earl Ranulf. He 

 had previously married Alice, daughter of Gilbert de L'Aigle, by whom he 

 appears to have had no issue." He married Margaret de Quincy before 2 1 June, 

 1 22 1, when he had livery of Winborneholt Chace, co. Dorset." In 1233 he 

 joined the confederacy under the Earl-Marshal against Peter des Roches, but 

 the bishop corrupted him by a bribe of 1,000 marks" and won his adherence 

 to the king, to whom he continued loyal for the remainder of his life. He 

 was constable of Whitchurch Castle at this time," and of Chester and Beeston 

 castles in 1237,'* ^" which year he was one of the witnesses to the confirmation 

 of the charters "and present at the queen's coronation." On 20 November he 

 was one of three sent by the king to the legate Otho and the prelates at the 

 council held at St. Paul's to forbid them to do anything against the dignity of 

 the crown." Having attached himself completely to the court party, he now 

 became one of the king's unpopular counsellors," and using his influence over the 

 king, obtained a conditional grant of the marriage of Richard de Clare, first 

 earl of Gloucester, for his eldest daughter Maud, promising 5,000 marks for 

 the grant, 2,000 of which the king afterwards remitted." This marriage, being 

 arranged without the consent of the barons, caused grave dissatisfaction, 

 especially on the part of the king's brother, Richard, earl of Cornwall, who 

 reproached the king for being thus influenced by Lincoln.*"* The latter made 

 his peace with the king's brother, who was also Richard de Clare's step-father, 

 by means of prayers and gifts." The earl was appointed sheriff of Chester in 



1 Pat. R. 1216-25, 527- ^ (^l"' R- (Rec. Com.), ii. 936. 



8 Ibid. 151. * Ibid. 202^. 



6 Rymer, Foed. (Rec. Com.), i. 187 ; Pat. R. 1225-32, 162. 



6 Rymer, FoeJ. (Rec. Com.), i. 193 ; C/ose R. 1227-31, 229. 



7 Rymer, FoeJ. i. 198 ; Pat. R. 1225-32, 359, 394-5. 



8 Close R. 1227-31, 534. 



9 Matth. Paris, Ciron. majora (Rolls Ser.), iii. 230. The letters patent creating him earl of Lincoln and 

 granting him ^^20 in lieu of the third penny of the county, were dated 23 November, 1232, Pat. R. 1 7 Hen. III. 

 pt. ii. m. 9 ; Ormerod, Hist. ofChes. (edit. Helsby), ii. 697. 



10 Mon. Angl. vi. 315-5; Cokayne, Comp. Peerage, v. 90. Alice was apparently the daughter of Gilbert 

 by Isabella, relict of Robert de Lacy (d. 1193). Seep. 319 below. Also c£ Mm. Angl. vi. 315^. ; Close R. 

 (Rec. Com.), i. 14^. 



11 Close R. (Rec. Com.), i. 462^. 



13 Matth. Paris, Chron. majora (Rolls Ser.), ii. 356-7. 



13 Pat. R. 18 Hen. III. m. 17. '* Pat. R. 21 Hen. III. m. 5. 



15 Stubbs, Select Charters, ed. 1870, 356. 



16 Matth. Paris, Chron. majora (Rolls Ser.), iii. 338. " Ibid. Hist. Angl. ii. 400. 

 13 Ibid. Chron. majora, iii. 412 ; Diet. Nat. Biog. xxxi. 380. " Pat. R. 21 Hen. III. m. 5. 

 20 Dugdale, quoting Matth. Westm., Baronage, i. 102^. 



SI Diet. Nat. Biog. xxxi. 380^. 



306 



